Amhara - Settlements

The typical rural settlement is the hamlet,
tis,
called
mender
if several are linked on one large hill. The hamlet may consist of two
to a dozen huts. Thus, the hamlet is often little more than an isolated
or semi-isolated farmstead, and another hamlet may be close by if their
plowed fields are near. Four factors appear to determine where a hamlet
is likely to be situated: ecological considerations, such as water
within a woman's walking distance, or available pasturage for the
flock; kinship considerations—persons within a hamlet are nearly
always related and form a family economic community; administrative
considerations, such as inherited family ownership of land, tenancy of
land belonging to a feudal lord of former times, or continuing agreement
with the nearby church that had held the land as a fief up to 1975 and
continues to receive part of the crop in exchange for its services; and
ethnic considerations. A hamlet may be entirely inhabited by Falasha
blacksmiths and pottery makers or Faqi tanners. Most of the Falasha have
now left Ethiopia.

To avoid being flooded during the rainy season, settlements are
typically built on or near hilltops. There is usually a valley in
between, where brooks or irrigation canals form the border for planted
fields. The hillsides, if not terrace farmed, serve as pasturage for all
hamlets on the hill. Not only sheep and goats, but also cows, climb over
fairly steep, bushy hillsides to feed. Carrying water and branches for
fuel is still considered a woman's job, and she may have to climb
for several hours from the nearest year-round water supply. The hamlet
is usually patrilocal and patrilineal. When marriage occurs, usually
early in life, a son may receive use of part of his father's
rented (or owned) field and build his hut nearby. If no land is
available owing to fragmentation, the son may reluctantly be compelled
to establish himself at the bride's hamlet. When warfare has
killed off the adult males in a hamlet, in-laws may also be able to move
in. Some hamlets are fenced in by thorn bushes against night-roving
hyenas and to corral cattle. Calves and the family mule may be taken
into the living hut at night. There is usually at least one fierce
reddish-brown dog in each hamlet.

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